What the heck IS this on this orchid? It's been doing this for a long time....

I've tried cutting off the weird leaves, new growth doesn't have it, but it seems to come on as the leaves age & grow larger. The backs of the leaves are ok for the most part. I've given it more sun AND less sun...it sorta reminded me of sunburn blisters. It doesn't seem to "infect" anything near it, and nothing else has it. I'm at a loss! Any ideas??

That's gross. It looks like it should rub off with a cotton ball dipped in alcohol. Does it?

Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and proclaiming...."WOW What a Ride!!" -Mark Frost

Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and proclaiming...."WOW What a Ride!!" -Mark Frost

Just take a leaf to your local extension office and they can send it off for you. The state labs can give you a diagnosis and a recommendation to remedy it. Elaine can probably help you with where the office is.

If the leaves had oedema, then got into some direct sunlight, the surface of the leaf could burn like that. The bottoms of those leaves look really healthy so I don't think it's a fungus or insect damage.

I've never known our Extension service to send leaves to the UF labs, but you could phone them and ask, Patty. 861-9807 gets you to the Plant Clinic line and there's someone there from 9 to 3 most days. They might have a botanist at the University that they can send pictures to, at least.

But I'd hang my hopes on Rafael, first. Maybe fasten those leaves up so the damaged side isn't facing the sun in the meantime?

Elaine

"Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm." –Winston Churchill

Really? We send plant tissue samples off to Clemson all the time so we can get an accurate analysis of whatever the problem is. There is a small charge for the homeowner but it is minimal and it pays to have the right diagnosis.

However, I do think you are on to something with the dried oedema blisters. That makes sense.

I figured FL did the same testing. When I first became a MG these tests were all free now we have to pay a few dollars for everything, even soil tests. However, I am a big believer in the tests, no sense in guessing at what is wrong and possibly using the wrong treatment. It often turns out nothing is needed.

Soooo...I took my orchid to Rafael this past weekend....he sorta laughed when I handed it to him and said, "You have cork!"

I said, "What?" (not sure I had heard him correctly...then I even made him spell it to be sure I was hearing what I thought I was hearing, and I was!)

He said it is caused by a SUDDEN, EXTREME change in environment! When he said my house must be very different from his greenhouses (cause it's one of his plants btw) I laughed and said, " my house is less than 10 miles away, it can't be too different!"

He said he has seen it on catts where it is much more severe, and it gets so raised that it looks like cork...

Anyhow, he said it is not contagious, it will be on the leaves that have it forever, and there is nothing I can do to change it, and I shouldn't worry about it.

Patty, I too think those lesions are simply "water-blisters". I personally don't think it has anything whatsoever to do with changes in climate but is related to heat on the leaves. Some orchids are very sensitive to sunlight and the least bit of sun on those leaves will cause this sunburn affect. As those water-lesions dry up, they leave a cork-like feel and appearance. Sunburn shows up differently in different leaf-forms.